1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally directed to industrial flares. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a portable, high efficiency flare stack which is operative, in a preferred embodiment, via vacuum induced fluid flow and includes means to arrest the travel of the flame toward the fuel source.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the petroleum industry, crude oil is generally collected in holding tanks which are fed via a pumping system coupled to the producing formation. These tanks are then periodically emptied into larger holding tanks or into a crude transport system, e.g a pipeline. Crude oil pumped from subsurface formations in this fashion includes a fractional quantity of volatile gases which, at formation pressure, are maintained in solution. These gaseous compounds often come out of solution, however, when brought to the surface.
When placed in the holding tank, these gaseous components have traditionally been vented to the atmosphere in order to reduce damage to the tank itself from overexpansion. However, recent regulatory amendments governing atmospheric emissions now preclude this practice. As a result, these volatile fractions must now either be burned via an on site flare or withdrawn and transported. This later option, due to issues of expense, is seldom utilized. For these same reasons, other heretofore uncontrolled practices of atmospheric venting such as occur in commercial painting shops and landfills now also require an on site flaring system. A prior art flaring system utilized in a landfill application is seen in U.S. Pat. No. 4,900,244 as issued to Keller et. al.
However, the number and spacing of holding tanks or other sources of volatile gases, and the proportionate economic benefit realized from each of these applications, renders the use of conventional flares prohibitively expensive. Moreover, flare apparatus for the aforereferenced applications should ideally be both portable and economical to use.
Finally, the risk of explosion dictates that any such flaring system include a flame arrestor to prevent catastrophic consequences which would result in the ignition of the source of the volatile gases. Prior art systems such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,741,691 have not emphasized nor provided for such safety measures.